I think that all the ones so far have been made on Mac's with Audio Builder (Nadine and Xenutia both used this)
The files all play properly on my mp3 player ( a baby iPod) and in iTunes so the problem seems to arise with Qucktime which seems to decide they are something else as far as dowloading - and I can't see any way to convince it otherwise.
But lets not embark on a massive "fixing" of a problem by changing the files it has so far only been reported by one person and Xenutia's files have been there since we only had about 100 files so we can afford to wait and search if there is a better solution.

Anne

Our objective is to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet. - Hugh McGuire.

I have downloaded 2 from that list some time ago using a different computer that was running Windows XP; don't recall if it was using Firefox or IE. Thinking the problem lies with the computer programs (Windows, Firefox, or Quicktime). Will play with them some more...

On a quick google - it seems like it is quicktime - there were a number of questions about similar aspects.
but I think you need Quicktime to run iTunes.
It's a bit clunky and not much good as a long term solution but you could check the archive page and download from it . You would think Apple would manage to handle their format with their program wouldn't you.

Anne

Our objective is to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet. - Hugh McGuire.

I played with a lot of settings and could not get Quicktime to stop opening until I disabled the Add On in Firefox. Then those files would download but they would do it automatically even if I set everything in the Firefox Options to "Always Ask". I did just notice that when it starts to download, the downloader shows the file as being Fearsome_Island_64kb.m4b.mp4 though the file name does not show the mp4 on the end.

Ok, I got it to work now but the solution requires messing with some behind the scenes settings that could mess things up if people don't do it correctly.

Type about:config in the Firefox location bar (it will then open a page warning you to be careful)
Type ‘plugin’ in the filter box (minus quotes)
Look for ‘plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types’
If it already exists and contains a value, add ‘,video/mp4’ to the end of it, otherwise just change the value to ‘video/mp4’
Close this tab
In the Firefox pull down menus, go to Tools, Options, Applications
Scroll down to the MP4 Video and change it to always ask (or save file if you prefer)
Fully close Firefox, wait a few seconds for it to clean up and die
Launch Firefox again.. it should work now

In discussion with my son, the geek, who uses a Mac, he says that a Mac will hide the file extensions. So you could change the file to say it is an m4b but what you don't see is that the hidden file extension of mp4 is still there on the end. He just showed me on his Mac; you have to go into the file properties to actually see this. Soooo, those working on a Mac need to make sure they change the actual file extension, not just type ".m4b" onto the end of the file name. He also thought a script could possibly be written that could search through the existing files and remove all the .mp4 extensions from the "problem" files.

To clarify: I don't think Barry and I are having the same issue.
And I never renamed any file and I see the extension on the files on my mac (I configured it this way). So if some of the ones I did do not work, that is not the reason. Also, in the program I use (which is Audiobook builder, and works well), you choose the output format, and I set it to m4b, not m4a.

The problem I was having was with files I made as well as other people's files. Some books would restart at the right spot after I switched off my phone some days, but not the next. Some would always start at the right place, and some would always go back to start. I suspect now that the problem was whether or not I downloaded any applications or updates on my phone, then it would reset the book somehow. But I am not completely sure.

I don't think we finished up thinking you renamed anything - I think Barry's son felt it was a Mac thing and a qhicktime thing - which certainly seemed to be born out by the ones I knew had Mac's. Most don't use quicktime to listen so it seems to me something we will just have to accept. Maybe the next version of quicktime will handle things differently

Anne

Our objective is to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet. - Hugh McGuire.